Book review of Bruce Riedel’s “What We Won: America’s Secret War in Afghanistan, 1979-89

Book review of Bruce Riedel’s “What We Won: America’s Secret War in Afghanistan, 1979-89”

By Elias Davidsson, August 24, 2014

Unreliable author

The author, a former CIA official, purports to write scholarly books. I have analysed a paper by the author, Bruce Riedel, published on November 30, 2008 by the Brookings Institution entitled “Terrorism in India and the Global Jihad.” The paper was written in the wake of the Mumbai attacks. Approximately half of all factual statements made in this short essay are either baseless, wrong or unsubstantiated. Here are the results of my analysis

“India has been a target for al Qaeda and the global jihadist movement for over a decade.” (No evidence)

“India has often been listed by bin Laden and his accomplice Ayman Zawahiri as a part of the `Crusader-Zionist-Hindu’ conspiracy against the Islamic world.” (No evidence)

“The targets of the killers in Mumbai –Americans, Brits, Israelis and Indians–fit exactly into the profile al Qaeda and its partners vilify and plot against.” (wrong, no Americans and Brits were targeted)

“Both bin Laden and Zawahiri have spoken about the “U.S-Jewish-Indian alliance against Muslims.” (No evidence)

“Usama bin Laden was an early supporter of the group [LeT] and provided some of the initial funding for its start.” (No evidence)

“LeT’s self professed goal is to create an Islamic state in all of south and central Asia, not just Kashmir.” (No evidence)

“LeT’s operatives have worked closely with al Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan and there are reports of LeT volunteers fighting in Iraq.” (No evidence)

“Since 9/11 several key al Qaeda operatives arrested in Pakistan have been found in safe houses run by LeT.” (No evidence)

“The first major al Qaeda lieutenant caught after 9/11, Abu Zubayda, was apprehended in an LeT safe house in Faisalabad.” (No evidence)

“Bin Laden was also a key figure in the creation of another Kashmiri group that works closely with global jihadists, the Jaish-e Muhammad (Army of Muhammad).” (No evidence)

“In December 2001 JeM, possibly with help from LeT, was behind an attack on the Indian parliament.” (No evidence)

“By focusing Pakistan’s army on its eastern border with India the attack [on the Indian Parliament] also left the western border with Afghanistan open to the retreating al Qaeda and Taliban leadership including bin Laden, Zawahiri and Mullah Omar who were fleeing the American Operation Enduring Freedom forces in Afghanistan.” (No evidence)

“Trained and armed killers [were] intent on operating in small teams or alone targeting Americans, Brits, Israelis as well as Indians” in Mumbai.” (wrong, Americans and Brits were not targeted; the words “as well as Indians” is a gross misrepresentation. Most victims were Indians)

“Hotels have long been a favorite target of al Qaeda and its allies from the multiple hotel bombings in Amman by Al Qaeda’s Iraq franchise in November 2005 to the attack on the Serena Hotel in Kabul this January and the bombing of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad in September.” (No evidence that these attacks had any relation with Al Qaeda or an alleged Al Qaeda “franchise”)

“Many accounts of the incident say the terrorists arrived by sea from the Pakistani megacity port of Karachi.” (Only a single witness, Bharat Tamore, testified in the Mumbai court to have seen “terrorists” arrive by sea, and his credibility was nil)

“Khalid Shaykh Mohammad, the tactical mastermind of 9/11, trained most of the Saudi hijackers in Karachi in a safe house.” (No evidence for the allegation. The claim that KSM was tactical mastermind of 9/11 is baseless and absurd)